The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 continues to send shockwaves through corporate America, and raised fears it will deter highly qualified candidates from aspiring to the role of chief executive. All of this compelled Andrew Chastain, the CEO of the health care-focused search firm WittKieffer, to publicly speak out on the threats of violence against workers in the industry that have become all too common in recent years.
“Leadership is hard. It requires courage and conviction to make decisions you feel are in the best interest of your organization and those you serve. While weighing the risks of decisions and options, health care leaders should not have to worry that these decisions could make them targets,” wrote Chastain in a public letter posted on Tuesday to LinkedIn by WittKieffer’s CFO, Erin Lavelle.
Chastain added that, following Thompson’s murder, he’s heard from many of the leaders expressing a “newfound fear of simply doing your jobs and serving as the public face of your organizations … ‘Could it happen to me?’ you wonder.”
He went on to describe Thompson’s killing as “symptomatic” of a wave of hatred directed at health care workers across organizations, especially physicians, nurses, and staff who tend to patients at their bedside.
“Violence aimed at health care workers is on the rise,” Chastain writes. “These things weigh on all of us who work in health care, and especially those of you who live it on a daily basis.”
He encouraged the health care leaders to remember why they chose the work that they do and the impact they have on people’s lives.
The killing of Thompson has also resulted in a wider discussion of many Americans struggling to receive and pay for medical care.
“There’s been a push and pull between the health care organizations, insurance companies, and the government on how things are funded and paid,” Chris Cozzoni, partner and U.S. health care investment co-leader at Mercer, previously told Fortune. And that’s going to continue going forward, he said.
On top of increased violence, health care executives are also facing financial strain in the health care industry right now. Post-pandemic, government support went away, and at the same time, there was a huge amount of inflation, especially wage inflation within health care, Cozzoni said
“They’re still working to get over that, and that’s not going away in the short term,” he said. Mercer projects a deficit of over 100,000 health care workers in the U.S. by 2028.
Luigi Mangione was charged on Tuesday with murdering Thompson, according to an unsealed criminal complaint from New York, and he is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, Fortune reported.
